The present invention pertains generally to fireplaces, fireboxes, wood stoves and the like, and more particularly to an improved tool for separating hot coals from ash so that a new fire can be started in a rapid and efficient manner.
With rising energy costs, a renewed interest exists in heating buildings by burning wood, coal and other solid fuels. Concurrently, efforts continue to reduce particulate emissions and gaseous products of incomplete combustion in order to reduce air pollution. The usual pattern of home heating allows a fire to burn down to the level of ashes and coals either overnight, or during the day, at which time it is desirable to restart the fire promptly. One way to do this is to simply place logs on the residual bed of mixed coals and ashes. However most fireboxes perform less efficiently as ashes accumulate in the bottom, and eventually, the ash/coal mixture must be removed. The mixture must either be removed hot, which presents a disposal problem since the heat wafts considerable ash into the room and the mixture serves as an ignition source when discarded, or the fire must be allowed to die down further, which requires a period of time during which no heat is being provided.
Then in order to start a new fire, one must use paper or a similar low heat fuel, followed by kindling, and finally by the main fuel, which is usually logs, pellets or coal. Ten to twenty minutes of effort and close attention, plus a large amount of prepared paper and kindling, with a corresponding large amount of poor combustion is needed to use this method. The present invention allows a way to separate the still usable coals from the ashes, so that the ashes can be discarded. The coals can then be used to promptly restart a new fire without the need for paper, kindling or extensive time and attention.
Devices for handling the contents of furnaces and for separating coals from ash are well known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 72,294 shows a cinder shovel. The shovel has a plurality of teeth and can be utilized to transport coal without spilling.
U.S. Pat. No. 226,351 illustrates a shovel or scoop for handling potatoes, corn, coal, or other materials which are mixed with dust or dirt. Parallel wires serve as a screen to separate the refuse from the objects.
U.S. Pat. No. 229,119 discloses a wire cinder shovel for separating coke and cinders from coal-ashes. The device consists of a shovel having a series of wires fastened by both ends to the handle and an angular wire fastened near a forward portion which serves as a brace.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,257,415 comprises a sifting shovel formed of rigid wire. The shovel has a front crosspiece.
These existing separator designs were designed primarily for furnaces, where considerable space was available and a push-pull shoveling motion was possible. However, these devices could not function properly in smaller stoves and fireboxes.
Alternatively, devices shaped like a common garden rake could be used to separate ash and coal from front to back in the firebox, but even then, they would only work if the depth of the ash-coal mixture is within the range of the rake tines. Furthermore, use of a rake makes it difficult to manipulate the contents forward and back in the confines of a wood stove.
One shovel-type device more specifically designed for woodstoves is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,305,376 provides a screening and separating action while it removes the ashes from a fire, but it will not operate tightly behind the front lower lip of modern wood stoves, it contains moving parts, and it is designed to replace the standard fireplace shovel.
U.S. Pat. No. Des. 285,831 shows a fireplace coal and ash separator which has an elongated shaft, a handle, and a pan having a plurality of slots.
U.S. Pat. No. Des. 420,735 describes a fireplace ash and coal separator which has an elongated shaft, a handle, and a shovel portion which has a plurality of fingers connected by a cross member.
One further problem exists that is not addressed by the prior art. If ash and coal separation is to be done within a firebox, it is necessary to first move all the ash-coal mixture to one part of the box before separation, in order to have a clear area in which to deposit the separated coals. If this clear area is not provided, then one must dump the separated coals back onto the ash-coal mixture. Therefore, each scoop merely causes a serial dilution of ash content and does not actually result in complete separation.
Accordingly, there is a need for a simple ash/coal separation tool that supplements existing fireplace or woodstove tool functions, has the versatility and reliability of a tool with no moving parts, provides access to the ash/coal mixture behind the front lip of the firebox, and allows the entire ash/coal mixture to be moved to one part of the firebox, leaving clear area to deposit the separated coals.
The present invention is directed to a tool for separating coal from ash and comprises a rigid shaft with a handle at one end and an array of parallel, curved, rigid, round, wire-like elements comprising fingers or tines mounted perpendicularly to each side of the shaft at the other end. The parallel fingers provide the pushing and sifting/separating action. On one side of the shaft, the lengthiest of the parallel fingers have their distal ends bonded to a continuous element running perpendicular to the parallel fingers. On the opposite side of the shaft, parallel fingers protrude that are shorter, and arranged in such a fashion as to serve as a rake.
The present invention is specifically tailored to use in the restricted space of a wood stove or fireplace, where the forward scooping action does not work well.
The right angle arrangement of the scoop utilizes the powerful and controllable motion of the human forearm that is called supination. This action, which for a right-handed operator results in clockwise rotation of the tool and the forearm, is the same motion that is used to tighten screws with a screwdriver and adjust controls on machinery. It is a much easier and more natural motion than shoveling for work in small spaces.
The right angle arrangement of the scoop also allows the scoop to reach the ash/coal mixture immediately behind the front lip of the wood stove or fireplace firebox. This is an area inaccessible to a straight shovel.
The right angle arrangement of the scoop formed by the fingers also allows for use as a xe2x80x9cpusherxe2x80x9d to quickly push the ash/coal mixture to the side, and then sift, separate and transport the coals to the opposite side. Formation of an ash/coal pile with an adjacent clear area, is a key requirement for efficient ahs/coal separation within a firebox. Without a clear area in which to deposit the separated coals, each iteration of the sifting process merely dilutes the ashes and does not achieve good separation. A shovel-type device has a fundamental limitation in being unable to easily move an ash/coal mixture into a pile.
The use of round, wire-like parallel tines or fingers in the scoop makes the tool partially self-cleaning. Very little ash sticks to the round elements, as opposed to elements with flat surfaces that tend to accumulate ash. Further, the coals tend not to become trapped between the round parallel fingers as they do with flat, square, rectangular or crisscrossed elements.
The use of a continuous round, wire-like leading edge provides smoother sliding action when entering the ash/coal mixture than does an open ended (fork-like) arrangement. The continuous leading edge is light enough that the entire scoop portion still vibrates a bit when tapped against the inside of the firebox, and the vibration is a useful feature to dislodge the rare coal that does become wedged between fingers, or to shake any adherent ash from the tool.
The fingers of progressively tapering length on the opposite side of the main shaft are designed to serve as a rake. Because of the front lip of wood stoves, and because of the natural tendency to hold a fireplace tool so that it angles down into a fireplace even if there is no lip, the tapering tines allow the main shaft to be held at a usable angle and still contact the floor of the firebox during a sideways raking action.
Advantages of the Invention:
1. The tool of the present invention is a simple mechanical tool with no moving parts.
2. This tool is reliable
3. This tool and technique restart a fire in two to five minutes as opposed to the ten to twenty minutes required with the conventional cleaning, paper and kindling method.
4. The fire which is started is much hotter much sooner than a fire started with the paper and kindling method.
5. This tool and technique do not require the preparation or storage of paper and kindling.
6. Less pollution is generated since low-heat paper and kindling starts are avoided.
7. The volume and heat content of the discarded ash material is reduced, making disposal less hazardous.
8. This tool and technique save and put to use the heat content of the coals which would otherwise be discarded.
9. This tool and technique make use of the powerful supination action of the human forearm, a motion more controllable than axial pushing or other movements.
10. The operation is one-handed; it does not require the function of the opposite upper limb.
11. This tool and technique supplement the existing standard fireplace tool set. No existing tool is rendered obsolete, and this tool easily hangs on most fireplace tool racks.
12. As shown below, this tool and technique allow the lower frontal area of the firebox to be easily cleaned. This area is not readily accessible to shovel-type implements.
13. The curved, parallel and properly spaced arrangement of the operating fingers allows the tool to function as both a pusher and a sifter.
14. The long rigid fingers, when tapped against the inside wall of the firebox, vibrate slightly and produce a self-cleaning action which shakes loose particles off of the elements.
15. The rounded nature of the parallel fingers reduces the likelihood of a coal becoming wedged between the fingers. Any coal that does become stuck is quickly dislodged with a tap of the tool against the inside of the firebox.
16. The sifting technique leaves a small amount of smaller material on top of the ash coal pile. The perpendicular member which connects the distal ends of the parallel fingers together, by virtue of being mounted beneath the parallel finger tips, serves a dragging function and can pull this smaller material from the top of the ash coal pile.
In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention, a tool for separating coals from ash includes an elongated shaft-like body having a first end, an opposite second end, and a longitudinal axis. A handle is disposed at the first end. A plurality of substantially parallel spaced-apart first fingers are longitudinally disposed along the body at the second end. The first fingers outwardly project from the body substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal axis. The first fingers are curved having a concave side and an opposite convex side. Each finger has a distal end, wherein the distal ends of all the fingers are connected by a cross member.
In accordance with an important aspect of the invention, the cross member is disposed on the convex side of the first fingers.
In accordance with another preferred embodiment of the invention, a plurality of substantially parallel spaced-apart second fingers are also longitudinally disposed along the body at the second end. The second fingers outwardly projecting from body substantially perpendicular to longitudinal axis in an opposite direction from the first fingers. The second fingers each having a different length, wherein the second finger closest to the first end of the elongated body is the longest, and the second finger closest to the second end of the elongated body is the shortest, and the length of each intervening second finger being selected so as to create a substantially tapered rake arrangement.
In accordance with an important feature of the invention, the handle has a cross section having a major axis and a perpendicular minor axis, the major axis longer than the minor axis.
In accordance with another important aspect of the invention, the cross section of the handle is one of substantially rectangular and substantially oval.
In accordance with another important feature of the invention, the major axis forming an angle of between about 70xc2x0 and about 90xc2x0 with the first fingers.
In accordance with an important aspect of the invention, the first and second fingers having a substantially circular cross section.